So, they took 10 students out of 543..... what's the point of having a new program like this if they're only gonna take 10 people?
I can't imagine all of the 533 rejected applicants are that far off from the 10 accepted applicants.
According to Columbia's website,
"Master of Science in Financial Economics students are indistinguishable from finance or economics PhD candidates
in their intellectual ability and academic credentials."
However, the students are clearly distinguishable in one key characteristic:
Money.
Unlike Ph.D. programs, where most students do not pay tuition (and also receive fellowships/stipends to provide them with financial support,) and unlike Ivy-league undergraduate programs, where the "sticker price" is paid only by those students from wealthy families, while the majority of students receive need-based financial aid to make up the difference between what their families are deemed to be able to afford vs. the "sticker price", this new program notes that:
"Columbia Business School
does not offer merit- or need-based financial aid for the Master of Science in Financial Economics."
Clearly, with an 80% yield (8 candidates out of 10 accepting the offer of a place in this $100,000 program), I would conjecture that Columbia has only offered places to those students whom they know can afford to pay the tuition out-of-pocket. As we know that other departments in Columbia have a habit of offering candidates who are not admitted to their degree of choice (eg: MSFE), but are otherwise strong candidates, the opportunity to instead do a related but different degree (eg: MSOR), I wonder how many of these students applied for the Ph.D. program and were not selected, then were asked whether they would like to be considered for this new MS program?
